Southwest Virginia Artisan Conference

Information

About the Conference

 

Immerse yourself in a unique gathering that pays homage to the craftsmanship deeply rooted in the Appalachian region during this three-day event, April 3-5, 2025, at the Southwest Virginia Cultural Center & Marketplace in Abingdon, Va.

The Southwest Virginia Artisan Conference will offer attendees a rich and collaborative experience featuring insightful discussions, hands-on workshops, and networking opportunities.

Schedule

April 3-5

(All Events Will Be Held at the Southwest Virginia Cultural Center & Marketplace Unless Otherwise Noted)

Thursday, April 3

Noon

Registration Opens
(Inside Entrance)

1:00pm – 5:00pm

Pre-Conference Workshop w/ Cynthia Deis
Zero to Newsletter in Just One Day
Conference Add On ($10 for workshop)
Limit of 12

5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Conference Reception

Music Provided by:
Addie Levy & Eric Pratt

Friday, April 4

8:00am

Registration Opens / Café Opens

9:00am

Opening Ceremony

9:45am – 11:45am

Anna Hedges – Crafting Stunning Images: Cell Phone Photography for Artisans
or
Triangle Arts – Mastering the Leap: Hobby to Entrepreneur

11:45

Networking

Noon

Lunch
Catered by Open Door Cafe
Music Provided by Addie Levy & Eric Pratt

1:15pm – 3:15pm

Group Setting: Cynthia Deis – It’s Not Just You – Imposter Syndrome & Craft Artists

3:15pm

Break / Networking

3:30pm

Anna Whitted – Promoting Your Work on Social Media

4:30pm

Closing Remarks

Saturday, April 5

8:00am

Café Opens

Headshots offered throughout the day – Anna Hedges

8:30am

Welcome

8:45am

Panel: “Maximizing Festival Sales: Strategies for a Standout Vendor Booth 

Facilitator – Erin Simons
Artisan Panel – Jen Otey, Ellen Reynolds, Rachel Gibson

9:45am

Networking

10:00am

 Breakout Session A: Hannah Cole – Taxes for Artisans
or
Breakout Session B: Rachel Gibson – Getting A Show

11:30am

Closing Remarks

Noon

Lunch
Independent

1:30pm – 3:30pm

Post-Conference Workshop:
Get Yourself A Website!
Conference Add On ($10 for workshop)
Limit of 12

Pre-Conference Workshop

Zero to Newsletter in Just One Day

3 hr Session

Instructor: Cynthia Deis
April 3
1pm-4pm
SWVA Cultural Center

($10 Ticket Add-On)

Email marketing is a powerful, low-cost way to engage customers, boost event attendance, and increase sales. In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn how to use free online platforms to create professional email newletters using templates and develop a sending strategy. Bring your WiFi-enabled laptop and start building your first newsletter during class! Lead by an experienced artist and arts marketer, this workshop will also cover how to grow your mailing list and repurpose emails as blog posts, social media posts, or site updates. Perfect for craft artists who want to move away from social media as their solo marketing voice, or those that want to add to their social media presence with more direct client contact.

Mastering the Leap: Hobby to Entrepreneur

2 hr – Breakout Session

Instructor: Cynthia Deis
April 4
9:45am – 11:45am
SWVA Cultural Center

Turning your craft hobby into a business? This workshop will help artists shift from hobbyist to entrepreneur by understanding the essentials of pricing. Taught by artists and entrepreneurship educators, this discussion-based workshop will help you learn how to set prices that cover costs, reflect the value of our work, and support a sustainable creative business. Through guided discussions and practical exercises, you’ll gain the confidence to price strategically and build a foundation for long-term success.

Crafting Stunning Images: Cell Phone Photography for Artisans

2 hr – Breakout Session

Instructor: Anna Hedges
April 4
9:45am-11:45am
SWVA Cultural Center

No matter what stage of the journey you’re in, photographing and sharing your art is an important part of the process. It can also feel overwhelming and intimidating at times to photograph our work in a way that portrays the story we hope to tell. Together, we will explore principles of art and design and discover different settings on our phones for making quality pictures. We will also practice our skills of noticing light and paying attention to the world around us in order to inspire awe and create pictures that we are delighted to use for promotional purposes. This will be a lively class where discussion and hands-on participation is welcome.

It’s Not Just You – Imposter Syndrome & Craft Artists

2 hr – Group Session

Instructor: Cynthia Deis
April 4
1:15pm-3:15pm
SWVA Cultural Center 

Do you ever feel like you’re not a “real” artist or that your work isn’t good enough? Do you come from a family and place where being an artist isn’t a “real” job? You’re not alone! This interactive workshop is designed specifically for craft artists who struggle with imposter syndrome. Through guided discussions, hands-on exercises, and practical strategies, we’ll explore ways to quiet self-doubt, embrace your unique artistic background, and build confidence in your creative business. You’ll leave with tools to recognize and reframe negative thoughts and move forward with greater self-assurance in your craft.

Breakout Session:

Navigating Social Media As An Artist

60 min – Breakout Session

Instructor: Anna Whitted
April 4
3:30pm-4:30pm
SWVA Cultural Center 

This session is designed to introduce artists to the difference between various social media platforms and how to use each one as tools for sharing your art. In a presentation style, we will review how to adapt your content for social media across multiple platforms and find your audience, market your business, and utilize these tools to your advantage.”

Panel Discussion – Maximizing Festival Sales: Strategies for a Standout Vendor Booth

Group Setting – Erin Simons (Facilitator)
Artisan Panel – Jen Otey, Ellen Reynolds, Rachel Gibson

April 5

8:45am-9:45am
SWVA Cultural Center

Are you an artisan looking to take your festival booth to the next level? Join us for an engaging panel discussion with three seasoned artisans who have mastered the art of maximizing sales and creating a standout vendor booth at festivals. In this interactive session, our experts will share their proven strategies, tips, and insights on how to attract customers, enhance your booth’s visual appeal, and drive higher sales. Panelists include: Jen Otey of Moonbow Artworks, Ellen Reynolds of Beagle Ridge Herb Farm, and Rachel Gibson of The Ford Studios.

    Getting A Show

    90 min – Breakout Session

    Instructor: Rachel Gibson
    April 5
    10am
    SWVA Cultural Center

    Avoiding the Pitfalls & Pratfalls. Learn the secrets to increasing one’s chance of success getting into group & solo shows. As a former gallery director, arts administrator & recipient of more rejection letters than she’d like, Gibson will guide participants through a fun, food-themed presentation followed by Q& A. 90 minute program

    Tax Help for Creatives

    90 min – Breakout Session

    Instructor: Hannah Cole
    April 5
    10am
    SWVA Cultural Center

    Taxes for Artists, Freelancers and Creative Businesses with Hannah Cole, ENROLLED AGENT, of Sunlight Tax

    What can I deduct? Do I bring receipts to my accountant? Is my art a business or a hobby? What is a Schedule C? How do I deduct my home studio? Why do freelancers have to pay taxes quarterly, and how do I do that? Hannah Cole is a tax expert who specializes in working with creative businesses and artists. A long-time working artist with a high-level exhibition history, and a tax and money columnist for the art blog Hyperallergic, the financial challenges of freelancers and small creative businesses are both relevant and personal to Hannah. She will discuss the basic tax equation, self employment tax and the estimated quarterly tax system, audit concerns for the creative person, and other tax issues specifically relevant to artists and makers, followed by a question and answer period. Hannah Cole is the founder of Sunlight Tax, which specializes in friendly, informative tax preparation for artists, and engaging, art-world savvy tax education workshops for artist groups, and in empowering creative people to set up for long-term success and take control of the financial side of their careers through her program, Money Bootcamp. She is also the host of the Sunlight podcast, where she talks about taxes, money, and careers for self-employed people who have a big vision for changing the world with their work.

    POST-CONFERENCE Workshop:

    Get Yourself A Website!

    3 hr Session

    Instructor: Cynthia Deis
    April 5
    1:30pm-4:30pm
    SWVA Cultural Center 

    ($10 Ticket Add-On)
    Ready to move beyond social media and create a lasting online presence? This beginner-friendly class will guide artists through building a simple, one-page informational website - no prior web experience needed! Led by an artist with professional website experience, this worksho will work with free hosting platforms and does not require coding at all. Learn how to set up a landing page that showcases our work, shares your contact details, and reflects your unique artistic brand. By the end of the session, you'll have a functional website and the confidence to customize it further. Perfect for artists looking for a more durable and professional online presence.

    Meet the Conference Instructors

    Photo of Cynthia Deis

    Cynthia Deis

    Cythnia Deis is a Raleigh-based artist, writer and arts educator with experience in a variety of mediums. Her background as a production jewelry designer and retail store owner provides her with an artist’s understanding of business and entrepreneurial issues. Certified in REAL Entrepreneurship and REAL Craft courses, she also teaches and consults on pricing, studio layout, and email marketing with artists, craftspeople and small arts organizations. With her business and mentoring background, Cynthia is the Education Director of Triangle ArtWorks, where she works to develop and implement programming and events focused on artists and arts organizations as sustainable economic factors in their communities.

    Photo of Hannah Cole

    Hannah Cole

    Hannah Cole is a tax expert who specializes in working with creative businesses and mission-driven solopreneurs. A long-time working artist herself, she’s helped tens of thousands of self-employed people skill up with accessible tax and money education, through her Money Bootcamp program, speaking engagements from Florida to Alaska, and on the Sunlight podcast. She is the founder of Sunlight Tax.

    Photo of Hannah Cole

    Anna Hedges

    Anna Hedges is a portrait and commercial photographer from Hickory Tree, Tennessee. She currently resides in Johnson City and has the immense joy of sharing her days making pictures with clients across the country as a full-time freelancer. Along with her passion for photography, she delights in quilting, sailing, gardening and writing. And coffee with heavy whipping cream.

    Photo of Hannah Cole

    Anna Whitted

    Anna Whitted is a local contemporary artist based in the Art Lab at the William King Museum of Art in Abingdon, VA. Holding a BFA in Kinetic Imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University, her professional art career began with experimental animation, video, sound, and extended tech media. Since graduating, her practice has primarily focused on painting and mixed media.

    Photo of Hannah Cole

    Rachel Gibson

    Gibson works as a mixed media artist with work in galleries from New York to Los Angeles and collections around the world. A happily-married, mother of one, Gibson lives & works in Marion, Virginia in the southeast United States. Her practice currently explores tiny hand-stitched textiles as well as work that overlays watercolor with embroidery.

    Photo of Hannah Cole

    Erin Simons

    Erin Simons of Laurel Ridge Studios is a craftswoman, historical interpreter, and educator from Southwest Virginia. Erin offers education through the historical interpretation of Traditional Appalachian Broom Making demonstration, as well as broom making classes. Erin recently joined the Friends of Southwest Virginia team to work as ‘Round the Mountains Artisan Engagement Specialist.

    Photo of Hannah Cole

    Jen Otey

    Jen Otey opened her studio MOONbow ARTworks in 2002 while living in Alaska. In 2010, she moved back to Southwest Virginia, where she grew up. Jen is the founding Chair of the Board of Directors for Forge Appalachia, a community nonprofit that focuses on providing creative workshop opportunities in fine art and traditional Appalachian craft, regardless of an individual’s ability to pay. She also works in the realm of building creative economy in Southwest Virginia, through the arts, culture and heritage, and outdoor recreation, as the Outdoor Recreation Development Manager for Friends of Southwest Virginia. Jen has been making art for over 25 years. She is a painter and a potter. Her work depicts and celebrates the diverse native flora and fauna of the place where she lives.

    You can also find Jen on Facebook and Instagram. Just look for MOONbow ARTworks by Jen Otey. Her work is available at the Southwest Virginia Cultural Center in Abingdon, the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, John C. Campbell Folk School’s Craft Shop in Brasstown, North Carolina, and Olive’s Porch Gallery in Murphy, North Carolina.

    Photo of Hannah Cole

    Ellen Reynolds

    Ellen opened Beagle Ridge in 2001 and has been specializing in Lavender for over 20 years. She is a recognized speaker at lavender and herb events up and down the East Coast, last year speaking at the New Zealand Lavender Conference. Beagle Ridge is a thriving Herb and Lavender Farm and agritourism destination in Wytheville VA. She has welcomed visitors from all 50 states and 29 foreign countries. Her passion for teaching other growers has created a thriving workshop series known as Lavender Academy. The academy teaches novice and expert growers how to grow Lavender and grow their lavender business. Since beginning the Lavender Academy in 2019, students from 32 states have come to take these weekend long workshops. Diversifying her business with other offerings, her husband retired early to help with the business. Although only open to the public 6 months out of the year, 5 years ago she hired a full time year round employee to help in the business. Creating a line of bath and body products on the farm, Beagle Ridge now manufacturers their diverse product line to 27 farms, spas and galleries across the country.

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